Sermon preached by John A. Huffman, Jr.
December 17, 2006
Copyright 2006, John A. Huffman, Jr.
All rights reserved.

Let me introduce to you Zechariah and Elizabeth, two somewhat obscure but very important people in the Advent narrative.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were the father and mother of John the Baptist. But that's the end, not the beginning of the story.

Zechariah, which literally means "whom God remembered," was a Jewish village priest. His wife Elizabeth, which means "God is my oath," came from a priestly family whose lineage went all the way back to Aaron, the brother of Moses. Both Zechariah and Elizabeth were devout and scrupulous in the observance of the Old Testament Law. They were faithful followers of the Lord.

However, they had a most heartbreaking problem. They were now becoming quite elderly, and they had no children. This fact had brought them much pain. They had prayed for a child for years. That child had never come.

The twenty-four families of the sons of Aaron were responsible in rotation for service in the temple at Jerusalem. Zechariah traveled from his village, not too far from Jerusalem, to take his turn serving as a priest.

On this particular occasion, it was his turn to tend to the brazier on the altar of incense in front of the Most Holy Place. Zechariah had the great privilege of entering the sanctuary to burn incense while the congregation remained outside in prayer.

The strangest thing happened. The Angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. Zechariah was startled. Fear gripped him. The angel said to him:

"Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:13-17)

Zechariah was stunned. He didn't quite know what to say. Initially, he could not believe this. He asked the angel for a sign. Gabriel gave him a sign. Because of Zechariah's disbelief, the angel declared that Zechariah would be silent and not be able to speak until this prophesy concerning the birth of Elizabeth and Zechariah's son, John the Baptist, would be fulfilled.

The people outside couldn't figure out why Zechariah was spending so much time in the temple. When he finally emerged, he could not speak to them. He tried to communicate with sign language. It didn't work.

In the meantime, Elizabeth realized the fulfillment of the promise. She began to feel life within her. She gave God the credit. She cried out, "This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people" (Luke 1:25).

Six months later, Gabriel appeared to a teenager in Nazareth named Mary and told her that, although a virgin, she would conceive a child whose name would be Jesus. Then the angel told Mary about her older cousin Elizabeth being six months pregnant. Mary went to visit Elizabeth. The two women compared notes. Luke records Mary's great prayer glorifying God, which we have come to know as the "Magnificat." The two women understood quickly the respective roles they had to play in what would be the relative positions of their children. We don't know exactly how much Elizabeth knew. We have the advantage of hindsight and are able to read into the story the words addressed by the Angel Gabriel to Zechariah in the temple. However, there must have been enough to suggest to Zechariah that the work of a preparatory nature would be the destiny of his future son. Perhaps some communication already passed between Mary and Elizabeth, so that the older woman knew the wonderful circumstances attending Mary's pregnancy. In any case, Elizabeth had no hesitation in joyfully accepting the minor role for her son and so establishing, even before their birth, the position of John the Baptist as the one who would be the "forerunner" and of Jesus who would be the Messiah.

Finally, the little baby was born. On the eighth day, they came to the temple to circumcise the child. They were going to name him after his father Zechariah. However, Elizabeth spoke up and said, "No, he is to be called 'John.'"

The priest argued with her, pointing out that there was no one among his relatives who had that name. Then they made signs to Zechariah to find out what he would like to name his child. The Bible says that Zechariah asked for a writing tablet. To everyone's astonishment, he wrote, "His name is 'John.'"

Immediately, Zechariah's mouth was opened, and his tongue was loosed. He began to speak, praising God. All the people there were filled with awe. This story spread throughout the hill country of Judea, as it became apparent that God was active in the birth of this little boy and that the Lord's hand was upon John the Baptist. After these nine months plus of being mute, Zechariah broke forth in one of the most beautiful statements of praise recorded in all the Bible, declaring in prophetic utterance coming not just of his son John but that of the Messiah Jesus.

So now you've been introduced to Zechariah and Elizabeth. Perhaps for you it's a first-time meeting. You have heard the names before, but you really didn't know much about them. Perhaps for you I am simply bringing back to the surface of your memory long forgotten teachings, which were once so familiar.

Let us not leave this story there. As helpful as it is for us to be aware of stories of these biblical characters, it is just as important for us to discover truths from their lives that fit into our existence today. Let's reflect and see if there's anything that can help the quality of our lives as we look at these two first-century people.

I'm convinced that there are many lessons that we can learn from them. Let me share three with you. May God apply these teachings in a highly personal way to you, where you live today.

First: A word to the elderly--God is not finished with you yet!

Put yourself in the position of Elizabeth and Zechariah. All your life, you had prayed for a child. All your life, you had been faithful in the service of God. All your life, you had read the Old Testament Scriptures. All your life, you had done your best to obey the Old Testament Law. All your life, you had looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. Now, the years had turned into decades, and many of them had passed, and it was time for retirement. Many of your friends had settled back, finding their greatest joys came from being surrounded by their children and their grandchildren. Many of them had not been as faithful to God as had you. Look what they had. Look what you were missing.

I don't know how I would have reacted. I do know this. I would have been tempted to throw in the towel, take it easy and at least cut back on my spiritual involvements. After all, God hadn't been as good to me as I had been to Him. Why should I take Him so seriously when He had not produced everything I thought I should have? But that was not the approach of Zechariah and Elizabeth. They remained faithful. The facts were that God, too, had remained faithful. His timing was better than theirs. Don't you ever forget that. Don't let me ever forget that either.

Have you ever played the "what if" game? I'm at the point of life that I find myself sometimes playing it. Sixty-six years of age doesn't meet the full definition of being elderly, although I've qualified for an AARP card for the last sixteen years and, for some time now, have been taking advantage of the "senior citizen" passes to the movies. I'm particularly excited about the fact that, last year for the first time, I qualified for a senior's discount on ski lift tickets.

The fact is, I am old enough to do a lot of reflecting on the last sixty-six years. These reflections cause me to ask some questions. What if our family had not moved from Boston to Chicago when I was fourteen? What if I had decided to go into politics instead of the ministry? What if I had not led that trip around the world in 1963 for Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and met Anne in Taiwan? What if she had gone on and married the man to whom she was engaged? What if I had gone straight on for a PhD instead of taking that call to be Associate Pastor in Tulsa? What if we had said "no" to the call to the Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church? What if we would have stayed in Pittsburgh and not come to St. Andrew's? What if we'd have accepted any one of several opportunities that have come our way in the past twenty-nine years?

Do you raise questions like these? I have to believe you do. Why do we do this? Why do we do this more the older we get? The reason is that life is funneling us down now, isn't it? The older we get, the fewer choices we have left. We are more determined to make what's left count.

Sometimes we wonder, do we not, what it would have been like if we had not limited ourselves or God had limited us to these environmental factors that hem us in. How easy it is for us to forget that, for the Christian, everything up to this very moment in time is prologue. God is not finished with me. He's in the process this very day of doing precisely what He wants to do in and through you and me. Perhaps it's not quite as romantic as we dreamed.

A friend of mine sent me some tongue-in-cheek comments about aging. One reads:

@QUOTIND = An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%. The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again." The gentleman replied, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times!"

Another reads:

@QUOTIND = An elderly couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, "Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly."

@QUOTIND = The other man said, "What is the name of the restaurant?"

@QUOTIND = The first man thought and thought and finally said, "What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know... the one that's red and has thorns."

@QUOTIND = "Do you mean a rose?"

@QUOTIND = "Yes, that's the one," replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, "Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?"

I could share a number more, but let me just toss in one more:

@QUOTIND = Two elderly men from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turns to the other and says: "Slim, I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you're about my age. How do you feel?"

@QUOTIND = Slim says, "I feel just like a newborn baby."

@QUOTIND = "Really!? Like a newborn baby!?"

@QUOTIND = "Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants."

Well, I don't know how Zechariah and Elizabeth felt, but I do know that they knew the clock was ticking, and they'd lost their chance at having a child. That was their dream. They were getting up there in years. Time had passed them by, and they certainly didn't figure as prominent people on the world stage. Oh yes, they were faithful to God, but God didn't seem to have any big plans for them.

Then they were surprised, surprised by the fact that God still did have some wonderful plans for them.

I don't care how old and insignificant you feel, God is not finished with you yet.

I look around this congregation, and I see men and women who thought they had retired. It's always dangerous to single out people for recognition. On the one hand, they might be embarrassed. And, on the other hand, others of you may feel left out.

Let me dip back into history a bit. Some of you remember Bob and Hazel Curtis. Bob had retired from the plastics business back about the time I came to St. Andrew's in 1978. During my early months here, I barely knew who Bob and Hazel were. The Curtises then went with us on a trip to Greece, Israel and Egypt. We got to know them on that trip. About that time, a task force was wrestling with the future of St. Andrew's. Should we be in a growth mode? If so, that would demand a building program. Some of the younger men and women on the Session and then on the building committee did not have the time, energy or expertise to see such a program through. God took a man who was retired, who had some serious health issues, and opened up a brand-new career for him. Bob Curtis made some his most significant contributions to the work of Christ's Kingdom long after some would have considered themselves "has-beens." Bob and Hazel now are in heaven together, but not until having made over two decades of significant contributions to the work of the Lord in those health-challenged older years. And even in their will, they have lived on, making substantial provision for the work of Jesus Christ here at St. Andrew's.

I need to be reminded that the "what if" game is a dangerous game. God isn't finished with you or me in terms of our earthly effectiveness until He comes to take us from this earth.

I remember my father and mother when they were my age. Dad came here as Minister of Visitation when he was already my age of sixty-six years old. As a couple, they worked so effectively among us. Then, in 1984, we had a farewell retirement party. They moved back to Illinois. For the next eleven years, Dad served as a part-time Minister of Visitation for two different churches in the Chicago suburbs, first with Dick and Bev Todd at the River Forest Presbyterian Church and, more recently, with Jerry and Lois Andrews at the First Presbyterian Church of Glen Ellyn. You know something? My mother and father have made significant contributions for the Lord all through their ministry up to the age of retirement. They didn't then throw in the towel. They were never more effectively used by God in their lives than they were into their mid-eighties, when Dad began to show the signs of dementia. And my dear mother, who's with us this morning, ninety-three years of age, continues to have a gracious ministry to her colleagues in the retirement home in which she lives in the Chicago suburbs. And I'm the beneficiary of knowing that daily I am in her prayers, as she intercedes for me, my sister Miriam, our families, right down to the youngest of her great grandchildren.

I could give additional illustrations of this. Ed Egloff retired back in the early eighties. He and Sue moved down to Newport Beach. Ed and Sue, in so many ways, have had great years of ministry here at St. Andrew's.

Where would we be without the leadership provided by Ken and Peg Williams? Ken does superb work as our Treasurer and Chairman of the Building the Future program.

Where would we be without the strong caring leadership of John and Ann Lehman? John is so diligent as our Clerk of Session and such a steadying influence on all of us.

In three and a half years, I will hand the St. Andrew's leadership baton to the next senior minister. But that won't mean retirement for me. I plan to stay active in ministry as long as God gives me strength, ministering every bit as much as I do now but without all the administrative and financial responsibility.

There's no theology of retirement in the Bible. We are still followers of Jesus Christ, no matter how old we are. You and I are meant to be sent, whether we're a teenager like Mary or senior citizens like Zechariah and Elizabeth.

The example of Elizabeth and Zechariah makes it very clear that God has no has-beens. This story is a word to the elderly. God is not finished with you yet!

Second: A word to the sincere, religious traditionalists--God may just surprise you yet!

Christmas is a time full of surprises.

The late Bruce Thielmann, for many years pastor of the Glendale Presbyterian Church, was my successor once removed at the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. He loved to tell a story about a lady who was preparing her Christmas cookies. There was a knock at the door. She went to the door and found a man standing there. His clothes were poor. He was obviously looking for some Christmas odd jobs. He asked her if there was anything he could do. She asked, "Can you paint?"

"Yes," he said, "I'm a rather good painter."

"Well," she said, "There are two gallons of green paint there and a brush. There is a porch out back that needs to be painted. Please do a good job. I'll pay you for what the job is worth."

He said, "Fine. I will be done quickly."

She went back to her cookie making and didn't think much more about it, until there was a knock at the door. She went, and it was obvious that he had been painting. He had green paint all over his clothes. She said, "Did you finish the job?"

He said, "Yes."

She said, "Did you do a good job?"

He said, "Yes. But lady, there's one thing I would like to point out to you. That is not a Porsche back there. That is a Mercedes."

Christmas is a time of surprises and things that take your breath away. In fact, all of life can be. Don't you think it's a good thing? Most of us measure our lives by the breaths we take. Perhaps it would be better for us to measure our lives by the breaths we miss. It's those times of amazement and astonishment, when suddenly our attention is carried away, that God catches us by surprise. He takes our breath away.

The only problem is that some of us have too carefully ensconced ourselves in religious tradition to be surprised by anything.

That had just about happened to Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were good people. The Bible says, "Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord" (Luke 1:6). Now that's the profile of a very religious person. You'd agree, wouldn't you? They went through all the right motions. They obeyed the Law. They were faithful in worship. They prayed fervently to God.

It is possible to settle into such a religious routine that God has one tough time getting our attention. I've often wondered what would happen here on a Sunday morning if Jesus literally walked down the center aisle of this sanctuary, sat down on the top step here on the platform and just looked around. I wonder if we would recognize Him. Most likely, He would have been caught by a flying wedge of ushers before He made it two-thirds of the way down the center aisle. I have to admit that the ushers would only be doing what we've asked them to do. We want them to be friendly and hospitable to all visitors. But the last thing we want is to have a visitor disrupting our order of worship.

Now, I realize that it is quite unlikely that Jesus is going to physically walk into this room in the course of this worship service. The fact is, though, that Jesus Christ is in this room right now in the presence of His Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, the very God of the universe, is an active observer of all that is going on in this room. He knows your every thought. He knows mine. He observes our yawns. He knows our fears. He is concerned about the health problems, financial needs and deep, aching loneliness that marks the existence of some. You name it, He is aware of it. And He wants to meet you at your point of need. He wants to surprise you with His joy.

What have you been praying about recently? Have your prayers been bold?

Imagine how many times Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed for a child. Then, look how stunned they were when their prayer was answered, not in their timing but God's.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon makes this observation:

@QUOTNOIND = Astonishment at answered prayers is amazement at divine truthfulness, and what is that but a low idea of the Lord unintentionally discovering itself. Yet I have sometimes thought that, if the Lord wished to surprise His own servants, all He would have to do would be to answer their prayers. He does so answer them continually, and in consequence you hear one and another say, 'Is it not surprising? You see, we met and had a prayer meeting for a certain blessing, and the Lord has answered our supplications. How marvelous!

I'm going to make a confession. I tend to live life too defensively. Perhaps I've been around too many people who have dreamt dreams quite a bit larger than life only to have those dreams disappear in the harsh light of reality. There was a time when I thought I would write a book titled The Power of Negative Thinking--Or a Way to Never Have Dreams Crushed Is to Never Have Dreams.

There does have to be a creative middle ground, does there not, between the naive optimism of some absurd health-and-wealth gospel at one extreme and the negativism of a kind of lifeless traditionalism that doesn't expect anything fresh and vital from God?

Over my twenty-nine years here as your pastor, we have had prayer teams and individual elders who have prayed for scores of people by name. We have taught that God answers prayer. We have endeavored not to raise false hopes by declaring that God answers prayer in His time and in His way. I think that that is responsible teaching. We dare not use that as a defensive mechanism, however, to put limits on what God can do and then find ourselves surprised when God actually grants a specific request, which we made in prayer. Why should we be so surprised when someone who's been fighting cancer and, a few months ago, seemed down for the count has snapped back and is living a productive, fulfilling life?

Let's not be so stunned when God answers our prayers. I can look back and document time after time when God has been faithful. I can also describe to you many occasions on which God simply has not answered my prayer in the way I wanted it answered. It doesn't mean He's not heard the prayer. I need to be increasingly alert to understand the ways that God goes beyond my ways. He, at times, has closed and actually locked doors that I have done everything in my power to force open. Now I can look back and see His ways are better than my ways. That is why we need to take the time to be still and know that He is God.

Zechariah and Elizabeth teach us that our God is a God of surprises. Don't give up on your kids. Keep loving them, no matter how old they are. Keep praying for them, no matter how far they have wandered away from the Lord. Keep acknowledging to them in quiet, gracious ways the fact that you are not perfect. Be specific in your apologies and non-manipulative in your gestures of kindness and love. Then trust God. Don't be surprised to see that child who drove you up the walls turn out to be a man or woman of magnificent Christian integrity and character. Even if you see no sign of that in your lifetime, don't be surprised if you meet that child in heaven. For how many times have I seen a godly parent in their lifetime not see a particular prayer for a spiritually rebellious child fulfilled. But I've seen that child come to the Lord after Mom and Dad have already gone to be with Jesus.

The story of Zechariah and Elizabeth gives a word to the sincere religious traditionalists. God may just surprise you yet.

Third: A word to religious activists--God expects us to be men and women of maturing faith!

Zechariah was a clergy person. He was a paid religious professional. He was faithful in carrying out the functions that were assigned to him in the temple worship. Apparently, he wasn't particularly accustomed to hearing the Word of God as it applied itself in a highly personal way to himself. I'm not suggesting that God has a double standard, but perhaps He does. How tragic it is when we see a person, who should be noted for their faith in the Lord, stumble in disobedience. We observed some classic cases of that in our culture during the last few years, haven't we? When God, through the Angel Gabriel, spoke specifically to Zechariah, Zechariah became confused. He doubted. He spoke back these words, "'How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years'" (Luke 1:18). Gabriel answered, "'I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur'" (Luke 1:19-20).

Sometimes God has to use fairly severe methods to get the attention of those of us who are religious activists, whether we be pastors, teachers, elders, deacons. If we don't shut up for a while and listen, God may have to shut us up. That sounds awfully severe, doesn't it? There need to be times of renewal. There need to be times of reflection and contemplation.

I envy that segment of the Roman Catholic Holy Orders which are referred to as the "contemplatives." These monks, such as Thomas Merton, take vows of silence. Some of us would benefit from at least periods of silence, times in which we stop our talking, our ceaseless babbling, so as to drink from those deep, cool, refreshing springs of spiritual water, which the Lord yearns to provide.

Do you take a Sabbath? Do you plan vacation time that ministers to the soul? Do we as your pastors stop long enough our activistic pursuits to "be still and know that Thou art God"?

I think back on my own life of spiritual development. The men and women I respect the most are not the people that were glib, quick with a humorous story and easy answers. They were men and women who took time to be holy, men and women who walked with God in spiritual discipline. They were not necessarily the popular religious leaders, but they were servants of the Living God. I knew that they had been with God, and I knew that they would again be with God. Their active ministry was nurtured by those times of meditation, by those times of quietness.

If for some reason you feel that God has equipped you for Christian leadership but somehow that leadership is not being as recognized as you'd like it to be recognized, it may very well be that God is in the process of deepening you. He may be doing to you for a time what He did to Zechariah. He may be simply trying to get your attention, trying to slow you down, so that ultimately He can more effectively use you.

There is a humbling word for those of us in religious leadership when we look at Elizabeth. It's a word that shows that the spouses of religious leaders sometimes have it more together than we professionals who have become too professional. There was Zechariah in the temple, in the Holy Place, doing God's work. He was the inside man with the direct connection to God. Somehow, he wasn't connected. There was Elizabeth on the outside, a woman not even allowed to worship alongside a man, married to one of the key religious leaders of her day. Yet she was more in tune to receiving the promises of God with an open, simple trust than was Zechariah. When Mary came to visit her, Elizabeth was sensitive to Mary's greeting. The baby leaped in her womb, as Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She was the one who prayed, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?" (Luke 1:42-43).

Some of us think just because we have knelt and had hands laid on us, setting us aside as elders and deacons, that we are superior to our spouses. Our ordination can destroy a marriage, if we treat it in a prideful way. Sometimes our spouses have greater spiritual sensitivity than do we, and we can learn from them. Part of the maturing process in the Christian life is learning how to wait. Waiting is okay. Waiting is the stuff of life. There is nothing like silence to deepen us. God may very well teach us through our spouses. And God may very well teach us through prolonged periods of waiting. The fact is, God can be part of that waiting.

Look at what this waiting produced for Zechariah. His child was born. Zechariah could still not speak when he went to the temple for the circumcision on the eighth day. Elizabeth names the child John. Zechariah had communicated that to her through writing. Startled were the leaders. It would have been more normal for this child to have been named after his father. Zechariah confirms in writing the name is to be John. At that moment, his tongue is loosed, and he begins to speak, praising God. The people of the hill country of Judea were in awe of what God was doing in the life of Zechariah and Elizabeth and their child John, who would become John the Baptist.

The story is completed with a song, prophetic statement that issues out of the months of silence. It is a statement in which Zechariah, declares months before the birth of Jesus, these words of Messianic promise and outlines the role of his son as the forerunner of Jesus.

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on his
people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his servant David,
As he spoke through the mouth of his
holy prophets from of old,
that we would be saved from our
enemies and from the hand of all
who hate us.
Thus he has shown the mercy promised
to our ancestors,
and has remembered his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us that we, being rescued
from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, in
holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called the
prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to
prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
by the forgiveness of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace."

So there you're introduced to Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist.

Luke concludes, "The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel" (Luke 1:80).

Remember this. No matter how old or young you are, you are meant to be sent. Be willing to be surprised by God. And open yourself to a maturing faith that enables you to be continually used by God!